Page 66 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 2

“Fuck the auction rules. I live my life by a moral code. One that doesn’t make the woman I’m going to marry bow to my every whim. If there is something you want or need, we’ll get it. You are not a prisoner.”

“Okay.”

“Right. Then I’ll ask again, would you like to go get some food and then take a nap?”

I ran my hands up and down his thick shoulders and biceps. His face was something to see but that body… I shivered in his lap and watched as a smile spread across his lips.

“Unfortunately, now is not the time or the place for what that look you’re giving me implies,” he said in a rough, sultry timbre.

“I’d actually like to nap. I ate a snack on the plane when you were making calls before we landed.”

He nodded, cupped my cheek and then pecked my lips. “Okay. You rest, I’m going eat and talk to Emily, then I’ll join you.”

I nodded.

He looked deeply into my eyes before kissing me softly again, then lifted me and turned sideways so I was on the bed and he was standing before me. I held my breath as he reached for my foot and slid off one shoe and then the other.

I shifted and crawled up toward the head of the bed and pulled the covers down.

“Do you want to get undressed?”

“Is that a proposition?” I teased and then ruined it by yawning.

He chuckled. “No.”

“I’m fine. I’m used to sleeping in my clothes.” I laid my head on the pillow as he covered me with the blanket.

“I’m not sure I even want to know why you’re used to such a thing, because I know I won’t like it, so I’ll just leave it alone,” he grumbled, tucking the blanket around me.

“Good idea,” I mumbled, sleep already invading.

“Sleep well, Maia.”

“Mmm hmm,” I said and then I was out.

* * * *

RHODES

For a full two minutes I watched Maia sleep. She closed her eyes and was out like a light, seemingly instantaneously. Her face was angelic when she slept. All of the intensity and nervous energy that tended to surround her simply gone. I vowed to make her look more rested as we got to know one another better. But the little I did know didn’t take away from my concern for her and her family.

The situation with her mother, siblings, stepfather, and stepbrother was ugly. The more I thought about what she shared earlier, the more I realized I might need to call in reinforcements in order to help them, provided her mother even wanted that. Maia didn’t really have a good read on her mother because it had been years since they’d seen one another. And from what I gathered, they didn’t talk often.

What if we went to Colorado, barged in like white knights, and were cut down by the very person we were attempting to save? One lesson I’d learned in my thirty-eight years on this earth was that you couldn’t save someone who didn’t want to be saved. No matter how hard you tried, or how well-meaning you were. They had to want it themselves.

I shook my head as the jet lag started to creep in, making my limbs feel even heavier. Still, I needed to eat and I wanted to talk to my daughter. The way she reacted to Maia didn’t add up to the Emily I’ve known her entire life. If she was playing some game, I’d put an end to that shit real quick.

I kicked off my shoes in the corner of the room next to my suitcase and removed my jacket, tossing it on a lone chair. On socked feet, I padded out of the room and closed the door gently so I didn’t wake up my sleeping beauty.

A high-pitched laugh I recognized made me smile as I followed the sound to the kitchen.

Emily’s expression lit up at my entrance. “Dad! Alana says we can take Maia shopping in Paris at the Galeries Lafayette! Isn’t that badass?”

“Mouth,” I reminded her.

She rolled her eyes, which was very much like my daughter, so I relaxed a bit when I took the seat next to her.

“Where’s Maia?” She looked over my shoulder.

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